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Cleveland Cavaliers embark on a week that could transform them -- Bud Shaw's Blog

David Blatt

New Cavaliers' head coach David Blatt has the reputation as an innovator who can motivate players. Whether he can do the same in the NBA is the question. The Cavs will introduce Blatt as Mike Brown's successor at a press conference Wednesday.
(Mindaugas Kulbis)

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cavaliers embark on their biggest week since The Decision and Dan Gilbert's letter calling LeBron James departure a cowardly betrayal (you know, in a good way)

It begins with the introduction of David Blatt as head coach Wednesday, shifts to Thursday's NBA draft and serves as the drum beat toward getting Kyrie Irving's name on a multiyear contract.

Compared to July 2010, this week can't help but turn out better. Default aside, there's even reason to believe it could be transformative.

Much of that promise is wrapped up in owning the No. 1 pick in a stacked draft. Talent in the NBA game trumps coaching acumen. But Blatt offers the Cavs the strong possibility of having both.

In following Blatt's career, I go way back to last week. So I can only go by what I hear from the people who have followed him and played for him. It's not enough to say that rare is the discouraging word. He gets rave reviews.

The worst that's said of the Cavaliers' decision is that Blatt's hiring is "unconventional" because he's spent so much time in Europe and zero in the NBA. "Unconventional" is a relative term, especially in a town where just recently Gilbert's team:

• Made a Canadian lefthander its No. 4 overall pick, only to watch him transform into a Canadian righthander.

• Followed the Tristan Thompson pick by making a Top 5 pick of Syracuse sixth man Dion Waiters.

• Went off the grid by taking UNLV's Anthony Bennett at No. 1 overall.

• Hired the coach they fired two years earlier, then fired him again.

David Blatt is a good enough bet compared to those moves.

Ignoring the hyperbole once again coming from Gilbert, who promises Blatt will "bring some of the most innovative approaches found in professional basketball anywhere on the globe," the hire isn't as out-of-the-box as it seems.

It's not as if he's leaving Europe and coming in here with a passing offense that employs the soccer header as a staple.

If as his legion of admirers claim his strength is adapting his offense to the available talent, that's smart not revolutionary.

Following the Spurs' dismantling of the Heat by – crazy as it sounds – moving the ball and passing up good shots for better ones – Blatt should find an attentive audience when he lays out his offensive philosophy.

So if he doesn't know the players, teams and coaches he's game planning against that's a disadvantage. No question. But that can be remedied in part by assembling an experienced staff.

One thing he doesn't have to learn is how to be a head coach, how to run training camp, how to reach players and squeeze their best out of them.

Managing egos in the NBA can be a challenge but that also can be overblown. NBA players – with the exception of a few knuckleheads – want to win. They want a coach to show them how it's done.

Blatt doesn't bring NBA rings to the table. But NBA players have been exposed to the international game in various ways for years. If they're not impressed with Blatt's resume, if they somehow believe Europe vs. the NBA is the difference between college intramurals and Division I, they're slow learners.

Blatt can't fight the no-NBA-experience caveat. But Mike Brown was the ultimate retread story. He had NBA experience. With the same team twice. How'd that work out?

The Cavs believe they have found a coach who can reach players and hold them accountable at the same time. At least with Blatt there's a head coaching resume on which to place that belief. Hiring Tyronn Lue or Adrian Griffin, for instance, would've been a projection.

The Cavs weren't so desirable that they could land any coach "on the globe," to borrow Gilbert's phrase. The search had its limitations.

Some coaches no doubt had reservations about working for an owner who fired Brown, hired Byron Scott, fired Scott, hired Brown, fired Brown and (reportedly) offered a kingdom to John Calipari.

In the end, the Cavs made a basketball hire. Not a box office hire.

There were more familiar names. (In fact, Mike Brown was available.)

Instead they've teamed an offensive head coach with a GM in David Griffin who comes from a similar background in Phoenix.

David Blatt has to learn the league. He doesn't have to learn how to be a head coach or how to institute a ball-sharing offense.

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